Complaint Review: First Coast Financial - Jacksonville Florida

Exhibits 1, 2, 3, and 3a

On Thursday, November 21, 2019, I received an email from Wholesale Tradelines regarding their current promotion (at that time) offering up to 50% off (or half off) its Broker Membership Program, originally priced at $2,790.  "We are only doing 15 spots and once those are gone, they are gone. Hurry up and claim your spot for your one-time payment to give you a lifetime of savings" stated it’s marketing email - Exhibit 1.  After watching quite a few of the company's YouTube videos (of Mike - the owner), I became even more interested in purchasing a membership so that I could sell authorize user tradelines to potential clients of my own.  So with using two separate credit cards, Capital One (card ending 2083) and PayPal Mastercard (card ending 1073), respectively, I purchased the Broker Membership Program from Wholesale Tradelines in the amount of $1,395 (or at 50% off the full price value) on November, 21st, 2019.  Payments were broken up into two separate payments:  a) a payment for $850, and b) a payment for a remaining balance of $545 - Exhibit 2 (credit card authorization form - signed at 7:47 PM EST) and Exhibit 3 (credit card authorization form - electronically signed at 7:50 PM EST), respectively. 

I was unable to view the contracts because the email links provided by Ryan did not direct the proper forms - Exhibit 3A.  The website portal whereby to access the broker forms and information wasn’t at all user-friendly which gave me reservations about partnering with the company, which I expressed to Ryan over the phone.  It was after purchasing the contract/lease agreement, that I was advised I would receive a full copy of the contract within three days, which was incorrect.  I actually received a copy of the contract which provided the full terms of the lease agreement six days give days later, on November 26th, 2019.

Exhibit 4

Subsequent to purchasing a broker’s license (contract/lease agreement) relative to the Broker Membership Program, days later on November 26th, 2019, I purchased an AMEX tradeline at half off (or priced at 50% off the full price value) for $397.50 - Exhibit 4 (credit card authorization form - signed at 4:02 PM EST), which was purchased with my Capital One credit card ending #2083.  The AMEX tradeline provide a $50,000 credit limit, a statement date of 21st - which provides the tradeline account would report (or would be added onto) on my personal credit reports (all three credit agencies - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, respectively) on the 21st of the following month (or December 21st, 2019).

Exhibits 5 and 6

It is worth noting, that during the entire exchange with Ryan and Mike, I was pressured and rushed into electronically signing the contract and credit authorization forms stating as they would state, “this is the last day we’re offering this sale.  We only offer this sale once a year”.  I later received an email from Wholesale Tradelines ([email protected]) - Exhibit 5 on November 26, at 4:30 PM (EST), of which I read and signed at 4:31 PM (EST).  However, I was unaware that the contract had arrived in my inbox until after having purchased the AMEX tradeline.  The Lease Agreement/Contract provided the full terms of my agreement with Wholesale Tradeline, which states “You may cancel this contract, without any penalty or obligation, within 5 days from the date the contract was signed” on pg. 25 under Notice of Client’s Right To Cancel - Exhibit 6.  This document supersedes (or replaces) all previous credit authorization forms signed on November 21, 2019 (evidence therein Exhibits 2 and 3) given the date in which the actual contract was signed.

Exhibits 7 and 8

On Friday, November 29th, 2019, I received another email from Wholesale Tradelines regarding their holiday (Black Friday) promotional discount.  However, this time, the promotional discount offered up to 66% off the full price value (or at $997) its Brokerage Membership Program - Exhibit 6.  So at 2:02 PM and 2:04 PM, respectively, I texted and emailed Ryan, my assigned broker at WTL (refer to Exhibits 7 and 8, respectively) to express my interested in purchasing another tradeline, a Barclays tradeline, but only if I could receive the difference of 66% off (or a difference of $398) given the relatively short amount of time elapsed since I had purchased the Brokerage Membership. 

I wanted to purchase a Barclay’s authorized user account with a $38,900 credit limit, aged at 12 years 2 months priced at $1,595.00 for $399.50, which would be considered my broker discount of half off all tradelines and an additional discount of $398.  I would essentially purchase the Barclays tradeline originally valued at $1,595 for $399.50, given the Black Friday promotional discount of 66%.  The Barclays tradeline account provided a statement date of the 19th, which means the added tradeline would report (be added) to my credit report on December 19th. 

Exhibits 9 and 10

During my phone conversation with Ryan of WTL, Ryan leaves the conversation to inquire with his manager, Mike Rando, offering me a discount of $398 (the difference of 16% off of what I paid for my  Broker Membership Program).  Ryan returns to the phone a says that Mike agrees to offer the discount. 

So Ryan processes a payment for what I thought was A Barclay’s tradeline for $399.50.  Instead, after the payment was completed, I noticed that Ryan processed a payment for the full cost of $797.50, which applied my broker’s discount excluding the additional $398.  The payment was broken into two separate payments; $700 and $100, respectively, using my Chase debit (card ending #4170) - Exhibits 9 and 10.  I thanked Ryan and told him I’d review the documents once they were emailed to me.

Upon receiving the actual credit authorization form email from WTL, which outlines a transaction, I noticed an error; that I had been charge only half off for the Barclays tradeline instead of the additional credit of $398, which should have adjusted the price of the tradeline to $399.50 instead of $797.50.  I immediately call Ryan back to advise him of an inadvertent charge in error.  I ask Ryan to provide me a credit for the difference.  During this exchange with Ryan, Ryan again leaves the phone to discuss the issue with his manager, Mike.

When he returns, he says Mike has declined my request, but states “Mike agrees to offer store credit of $398”.  I share with Ryan that I was not interested in a store credit because this is an error that I didn’t agree to.  I also share that if Mike refuses to refund my card the additional charges, that I would like to cancel my service as well as the contract and no longer conduct business with Wholesale Tradeline. 

 Ryan then apologizes and says he will confer with Mike to see what could be done and would call me back.  I have been waiting for that phone call since.  Ryan never returned my phone call and would no longer answer any of my calls to his personal phone.  I then proceeded to call the company’s corporate number to which I could not get through to Mike. 

Having essentially experienced a “bait and switched” tactic, after giving Ryan time to return my text messages and phone calls, I emails and a text - Exhibit 8 and 9 - to Ryan expressing that I were no longer interested in partnering with WTL nor using their products and services, and to kindly issue a full refund for each respective transactions paid over the past week totaling $2,592.50.  I never received a response from either Ryan nor Mike since Friday, November 29, 2019.  I have made multiple attempts to reach the company, but no one has responded to my phone calls or emails.  

However, I have begun disputing the charges with my banks to which both Mike and Val have fought hard to deny my request to cancel my membership and each tradeline that I purchased albeit they have not added any of the tradelines to my credit report.  Essentially, this company has ripped me off a total of $2,592.50 albeit ignoring multiple cancellation requests provided within 3 days of signing my broker contract and purchasing two tradelines of which they never added to my credit report.